Grandma Oma Hoggatt's Funeral

Funerals are hard no matter how you look at them. I was grateful for the opportunity to spend time with family last weekend. My Grandma, my last living grandparent, passed away the morning of Nov 4th. She was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer last year. She was taking a low dose chemotherapy medication that initially was helping, but stopped responding. She was recently told that without doing anything she would only live 3 months. We were hoping to see her during Thanksgiving. It was less than a week from the time she fell in the middle of the night to not being able to even hold a cup of water. The morning of November 4th I was making plans to drive to Spokane the following day after hearing of the fast decline in function. Amidst the planning, she passed away. It was probably a blessing that she went quickly and didn't have to endure much suffering. She was surrounded by loved ones as she passed on. 

Park fun

I took these a month or two ago, but haven't been using my camera much lately. Since then it has become really cold. I'm not a big fan of the weather, but I have been loving running outside, so I hope I can keep it up! Usually when we "go to the park" I am really going running with the double jogger. Then we stop at the park afterwards (basically it's the reward for my kids enduring my run - we usually do 3-4 miles and they always do really great). Carly loves running, so she gets to have her turn "going running" on the path to the playground. She usually asks me 3-4 times during my run "I go running now?" It's a well-balanced outing. It works out great!

Carly's 3rd Birthday

Holy Cow! I can't believe my girl is 3. There has been a lot more sass that comes with that age. Surprise surprise. She is creeping into that imaginary stage which has exponentially increased since getting her birthday toys (like her play kitchen & a new doll house). It's been pretty great. Tonight she ran to her kitchen, opened & closed her oven, said "Woohoo! I did it! I made popcorn and cupcakes!" Then she shared some with Morgan and I. Carly's favorite color is pink. She loves to wear jammies. Every night when she notices it's getting dark she says, "It's dark outside. I wear jammies?" She likes to express emotions & feelings. She always let's me know when she's tired, "Mommy? I feeling really tired." She tells me when she's feeling scared, sad, or happy. She loves to read books. Our friend told us about Fancy Nancy and I have been loving reading these books to Carly. She likes to "read" the books back to her stuffed animals or Benson's plastic hippopotamus. A recent favorite was "Polar Bear Polar Bear What do You Hear?" Carly has been doing ok with potty training. She always poops in the toilet, but only goes potty by chance that she's sitting on the toilet (only a few times). In the past 3 months, Carly has only pooped once in her diaper. So now to going potty on the toilet...

Favorite things:
Veggies & Ranch, oatmeal, bran flakes, bean with bacon soup, refried beans.
Her soft pink blankey.
Little toys (small books, tiny little action figure toys).
Singing (ABCs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Once there was a snowman).
Finding Nemo (Every fish we see now is Nemo).
Frozen (especially Olaf which means she loves every snowman).

 Uncle Sam is ready to cheer her on!

 Apparently what she's doing is more important than cupcakes....

 She likes to eat the frosting, then the cupcake. Her new frozen plate (Frozen dish set) from Grandma Barb - she loves it!

 Little Mermaid costume. Don't want to brag too much, but I got a steal of a deal. Walgreens marked their halloween stuff 90% off, so I paid $2.69. Not the mismatched costume mess you find at Walmart. How's that for an awkward smile?

 3 year checkup. "It poke. It ouchie.... but it's getting better." No shots, just a toe (or finger) poke to check blood count. PS Those hot pink shoes are from Grandma Deanna and have apparently replaced her silver sparkly shoes (she doesn't even think of wearing them since getting these new "birthday shoes".) Note to self: fruit snacks during toe poke - smart idea! I asked her if she wanted the poke to be on her finger or toe, then let her pick which foot she wanted. It went really well. I was also glad I had a cookie for her :)

 Here's the Olaf I made for the "Pin the nose on Olaf game".

 She is loving her new Ariel backpack!

 Of course she had to wear her tiara when she played with play dough today :)

 Posing with friends & of course Olaf. It was a fun birthday! Thanks to everyone who came to the party :)